Jury Can Consider Lesser 'Manslaughter' Verdict, Reiser Judge Rules

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Jury Can Consider Lesser 'Manslaughter' Verdict, Reiser Judge Rules

OAKLAND, California – The judge in the Hans Reiser murder trial ruled Tuesday that jurors may consider a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter against the Linux coder, which carries a maximum 11-year term.

Tuesday's ruling gives the jury an alternative to the murder charge, and was opposed by the prosecution.

Jurors will also consider convicting Reiser of first-degree murder, carrying a 25-to-life sentence, and second-degree murder, which carries a 15-to-life term. The former penalty requires premeditation. Voluntary manslaughter generally is a killing in the heat of passion.

Reiser is accused of killing Nina Reiser, his 31-year-old estranged wife, though no body has been found.

Nina Reiser's last known whereabouts were at her husband's house in the Oakland hills when she dropped off their two children to stay with their father during the Labor Day weekend. The authorities said she never left the house alive that Sept. 3, 2006 day.

Hans Reiser, who remains jailed without bail, claims his wife abandoned their two children after he confronted her that day with allegations she bilked the treasury of his Namesys software company.

Jurors are expected to begin deliberating next week after they hear from a computer forensics specialist who will testify on Monday about what authorities discovered on the 44-year-old defendant's two hard drives. The trial began Nov. 6 and saw more than 60 witnesses.

But the judge did not agree, telling Hora: "A lot of the testimony of evidence you brought forth on the issue of motive can lend itself to a reasonable inference of heat of passion."

The judge added that the "jury's going to have a fairly intense job. There will be a lot of things the jury found he said were not credible."

During his 10 days on the stand, the defendant accused his estranged wife of embezzling from his company, of falsifying financial statements in their divorce proceeding, of faking illnesses for their children, of having an affair with his best friend and, among other things, of threatening to take his kids out of the country.

In allowing jurors to consider the lesser charge, the judge ruled that jurors could consider that, "in the heat of the argument that Mr. Reiser killed her."

Defense attorney William DuBois urged the judge to give an involuntary manslaughter instruction as well, a crime carrying a maximum four-year term and is generally defined by an accidental death. DuBois asked the judge to assume his client pushed the defendant "down the stairs" at his Oakland hills residence, and that's how she died.

The judge did not go along, saying if that was true, Reiser exhibited a "disregard for human" life by not getting immediate medical treatment for the mother of his two children.

But DuBois would not give up on seeking that jury instruction. "I've ruled. I'm tired of listening to you talk all of the time," Goodman told DuBois.

None of the courtroom action was in front of jurors. The defendant sat between his two lawyers at the defense table, wearing a suit, taking notes and speaking with his attorneys. Only a handful of onlookers filled the gallery here.